Bookish Musing - 03.07.26
Hurray! We’ve made it to the end of the week, which is always good news in my book! The temperature has been much more agreeable, although it remains unclear if the UK is going to be graced with a third heatwave. At least, with the quietening of fans and the cooling of the air, I can focus long enough to muse 😂 I wouldn’t call it a post of profound thoughts but I have definitely picked up a few bits or bobs that have interested me since last I wrote. However you find yourself this weekend, I hope it affords you the space to do the things that bring joy. Happy Reading 📚
Billionaires - to read or not?
When I was younger, I am sure Billionaire romances did not exist, well they did but not as Billionaires. I am sure they were all Multi-millionaires or endless wealth was hinted at but never quantified. I find it amusing that as the genre has grown, the number of 0s required has expanded. It makes perfect sense after all, some 200 years on no-one would turn their nose up at the 5000 and 10,000 pound a year that Darcy and Bingley received. Jane Austen understood then, as we do now, that while money might not bring happiness…it is a great literary device in a Romance! What has prompted such musings on the Billionaire Romance Trope? I saw a comment somewhere that people were beginning to avoid Billionaire romances on account of real life most definitely not reflecting the Arts and it stayed with me. Reading is such a personal experience and we all find our own ways to express ourselves, show solidarity or protest and I really liked this idea of combining everything. Maybe it is time to dust off the old multi-millionaire Romances again…
All things being equal but the reverse?
By now, if you are a regular reader of the blog, you will know that I read Romance. And although my preferences changes, I will read pretty much all tropes of Romance. Up until fairly recently, I read mostly MM with the occasional MF, and prior to that it was almost exclusively MF. I wouldn’t say my reading habits have reached parity but my choices are more diverse -encompassing MM, MF, MMM, MMF and latterly FF. For me, the pairings do not matter as much as the heart of the story and how that speaks to me. I recently read an age gap romance - a trope I like but is not my first choice - and I thought to myself I really like this which is unusual as it is a reverse -age gap romance. And then, I stopped in horror that I had thought that at all. I describe my reading habits not to highlight anything, but just to illustrate that I am fairly relaxed in what I read. I have never read an MM, MF or FF age - gap romance and thought to myself about anything other than the age gap. It is just not a contextual clue in the way it is signified in FM relationships. I was honestly really disappointed in myself because it makes no sense to discriminate in that pairing. An age- gap for a MM, FF and MF is no different to an FM practically. The age-gap is the trope and that should be enough to drive the story forward. As ever, my opinion is my own and while I think it old -fashioned and somewhat sexist that an older woman with a younger man raises eyebrows in a way that any other combination would not, you are free not to agree with me. This was more a note to myself, that it is ok to not agree with how somethings are presented.
